F&C votes to accept Canadian takeover

F&C Asset Management's shareholders voted 99.6% in favour of a £708 million takeover by Bank of Montreal, and shares will be suspended after May 6.

The deal brings down the curtain on UK ownership of Edinburgh's former Ivory & Sime, based in Charlotte Square for more than 100 years until its takeover by Friends Provident in 1997. Former I&S managers are still at the core of F&C's Edinburgh operation, which runs three of the group's closed-end funds including British Assets.

Friends Ivory & Sime briefly became Isis Asset Management and then F&C after merging with the self-managed Foreign & Colonial trust, and was floated on the stock market in 2004.

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Activist investor Edward Bramson became executive chairman in 2011 after unseating Nick McAndrew. The Canadian bid at 120p a share landed in January, with the backing of biggest shareholder Aviva, though 10.3% shareholder Standard Life said it felt the valuation favoured the Canadians and signalled it was hoping for a counter-bid.

US hedge fund Elliott Management acquired derivatives equivalent to a stake of more than 10%, fuelling speculation over a potential bidding war.

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But in February F&C warned it faced "significant headwinds" as it said assets had crashed to £82 billion in 2013 after an outflow of £19bn, killing hopes of a higher offer.

Kieran Poynter, who became chairman of F&C last summer after Mr Bramson stood back, had said the offer represented "an attractive valuation for F&C shareholders and a positive outcome for employees and clients".

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